Poetics Serendipity: Let’s Read

08May

8:06 a.m. — Atlanta

listening to Ku’u Ipo O Ke Aumoe sung by The Brothers Cazimero

Hello, everyone. I hope all is well in your world, writing and otherwise. Yesterday it occurred to me that I head back to California in three weeks but, aside from that, June means Summer Prompts, so I am pulling together the posts for that and will give you the calendar [designed by Barbara] next week, while going over what happens, for the newcomers.

Today, I want to showcase a couple of the poems written by Wordgatherers during the April Oulipost challenge. About a half dozen of you joined in. If your time was anything like mine, you didn’t get around to reading much of anyone else’s work. I’ll include one poem from the Oulipian group, so you can see what was happening there. While you are at these three sites, you might as well wander, right?

The first is a poem by Misky who seems to have written three or four poems a day. The constraints: all words must come from a newspaper and without letters that extend above or below the line. ‘Music for a Spring Moon‘ is an admirable example of what can happen despite constraints.

The second poem, by de [who also wrote several poems each day], takes on not only the constraint of sourcing all words from a newspaper but is a sestina, ‘Implosion‘. The end words don’t stand out even on a second and third read through.

The final poem is written to one of my favourites of the Oulipian prompts, one where we can only use one vowel [oh yes, all words from a newspaper]. Check out ‘Birds With Fish‘ by Melanie.

Way back before April, I gave an overall review of Now What? The Creative Writer’s Guide to Success after the MFA, written by poets, editors and publishers. I have been struggling with how to present a more in-depth review to you, as the book is not just long, but crammed with advice and wisdom. I can sum it up with, If you want to publish, MFA or not, it’s a book you want in your library. To me, that’s the review you need, taken with my post, which I have linked you to. Do me a favour: if you might be interested in the book, look at what I say is included [the wordle is part of that, but I have a paragraph about the contents] and let me know if there are specifics you want me to expand on.

Enough to play with? I shall see you tomorrow for the week’s roundup of prompts; Tuesday for a prompt about doors and windows; and Thursday for the Summer Calendar.